KVMR 2018 Year in Review: Our Favorite Albums – Once Again, All Over The Musical Map

More proof that KVMR 89.5 FM veers all over the musical map – and then some – is in the pudding, well, the “top ten” favorites lists below. 

Very few 2018 albums – and even fewer “best sellers”- show up on multiple lists compiled by the Nevada City radio station’s 150 or so volunteer broadcasters. A preliminary count shows that Davis-based bluegrass/Americana artist Rita Hosking’s album, “For Real,” and legendary folksinger John Prine’s first original music album since 2005, “The Tree Of Forgiveness,”  may have been listed on the most broadcasters’ “top ten” selections. 

Some of those participating are broadcasters at the radio station’s alternative music format: KVMRx, which can  be heard on The Bridge 105.7 FM 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. weekdays and 1 p.m. to 5 a.m. weekends, and 24/7 online at kvmrx.org 

Mark Leviton – Pet Sounds – alternating Wednesdays 10 p.m. to midnight

Bob Dylan – More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 – Columbia

The Beatles – White Album (50th anniversary) – Apple

Parliament – Medicaid Fraud Dogg – C. Kunspyruhzy

The Travelin’ McCourys – S/T

Drake – Scorpion – Cash Money

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Downey to Lubbock – Yep Roc

Phish – Baker’s Dozen Live at Madison Square Garden – JEMP

Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth – Young Turks

The Beths – Future Me Hates Me – Carpark

Yo La Tengo – There’s a Riot Going On – Matador

Connie Coale – Music Magazine – alternating Wednesdays 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Wood Brothers – One Drop of Truth – Honey Jar

Lake Street Dive – Free Yourself Up – Nonesuch

Richard Thompson – 13 Rivers – New West

Rita Hosking – For Real

Hannah Jane Kile – Broken Girl’s Anthem

Joe Craven & the Sometimers – Garcia Songbook – Blender Logic Arts

Prickly Pear – Music Magazine – alternating Mondays 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Billie Eilish & Khalid – Lovely (Single) – Darkroom/Interscope

Son Lux – Yesterday’s Wake (EP) – City Slang

LM5 – Little Mix – Columbia

Tash Sultana – Flow State – Mom + Pop

LSD – Thunderclouds (Single) – Columbia

Jonas Blue – Rise (feat. Jack & Jack) (Single) – A Positive

DeJ Loaf & Leon Bridges – Liberated (Single) – Columbia

Tender – Closer Still / Falling Asleep (Single) – Partisan

Lauren Auder – Who Carry’s You (EP) – True Panther Sounds

Thomas Greener – Ragged But Right – alternating Saturdays 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Colter Wall – Songs Of The Plains – Young Mary’s 

Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis – Wild! Wild! Wild! – Bloodshot

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Downey to Lubbock – Yep Roc

Kinky Friedman – Circus Of Life – Echo Hill

John Prine – The Tree Of Forgiveness – Oh Boy

Chris Smither – Call Me Lucky – Signature Sounds

Mary Gauthier – Rifles & Rosary Beads – In The Black

Stephen Clair & The Pushbacks – S/T – Old School

Jim Lauderdale – Time Flies – Yep Roc

Vivian Leva – Time Is Everything – Free Dirt

Suzanne Calkins – Undertow – Mondays 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. (KVMRx)

Amen Dunes – Freedom – Sacred Bones

Beach House – 7 – Sub Pop

The Breeders – All Nerve – 4AD

Exploded View – Obey – Sacred Bones

Flasher – Constant Image – Domino

Haley Heynderickx – I Need to Start a Garden – Mama Bird Recording Co.

Jo Passed – Their Prime – Sub Pop 

Khruangbin – Con Todo El Mundo – Dead Oceans

Renata Zeiguer – Old Ghost – Northern Spy

U.S. Girls – In a Poem Unlimited – 4AD

Joyce Miller – Midnight Sun – alternating Thursdays 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Downey to Lubbock – Yep Roc

Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis – Wild! WIld! Wild! – Bloodshot

Jesse Harris – Aquarelle – Apple

Hawktail – Unless – Padiddle

I’m With Her – See You Around – Rounder

Vivian Leva – Time Is Everything – Free Dirt

Kacey  Musgraves – Golden Hour – MCA Nashville

John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness – Oh Boy

Aaron Lee Tasjan – Karma For Cheap – New West

Kurt Vile – Bottle It In – Matador

Shelter – Rollerz Radio – Fridays 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. (KVMRx)

Joe Ford – Colours In Sound – Shogun Audio

Klax – The Lucid EP – Critical Music

Enei & Kasra – Transmitter EP – Critical Music

V/A – Sick Music 2018 – Hospital Records

Black Barrel – Last Frontier – Dispatch Recordings

Jerianne Van Dijk – Morning Show – alternating Fridays 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Jon Cleary – Dyna-Mite – FHQ

Anderson Paak – Oxnard – Aftermath Entertainment

John Prine – Tree of Forgiveness – Oh Boy

Khruangbin- Con Todo El Mundo –  Dead Oceans

LP   Heart to Mouth – BMG

Larry Hillberg – Backroads – Saturdays 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Martha Scanlan – The River and the Light – Rock Ridge Music

Colter Wall – Songs of the Plains – Young Mary’s

3Hattrio – Lord of the Desert – Okehdokee

Barwick & Siegfried – Stones & Gravel – FGM

Rita Hosking – For Real

Chris Smither – Call Me Lucky – Signature Sounds

Ry Cooder – The Prodigal Son – Fantasy

Tommy Emmanuel – Accomplice One – CGP Sounds

Darol Anger & Emy Phelps – Music of Our People – Fiddlistics

Kevin Welch – Dust Devil – Dead Reckoning

Ruby Slippers – Click Your Heels Together – alternating Saturdays 4 a.m. to 7 a.m.

Folk Soul Revival –  S/T

Hot Club Sandwich – No Pressure

Shake Russell & Michael Hearne – Live – Puff Bunny

The Steven Blane Band –  Motel Blue

Willie Nelson – Last Man Standing – Legacy

Riders In The Sky – 40 Years The Cowboy Way

Karen Jonas – Butter

Bobby Sweet – All These Changes

Rhyan Sinclair – Barnstormer – Little Haunted Girl

Chicago Farmer – Live

Bex – Radish Beets – Thursdays 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. (KVMRx)

Liz Cooper & The Stampede – Window Flowers – Sleepyhead

Dr. Dog – Critical Equation – We Buy Gold

Anna St. Louis – If Only There Was A River – Mare

Sudan Archives – Sink – Stones Throw

Molly Burch – First Flower – Captured Tracks

Valley Queen – Supergiant – Roll Call Records

The Wild Reeds – New Ways to Die – Dualtone

tUnE-yArDs – I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life – 4AD

Shakey Graves – Can’t Wake Up – Dualtone

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Gary Wells – Crooked Highway – alternating Sundays 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

The Crooked Jades – Empathy Moves the Water – Jade Note Music

Monks of Doom – The Bronte Pin – Pitch-A-Tent

Calexico – The Thread That Keeps Us – Anti-

Dom Flemons – Black Cowboys – Smithsonian Folkways

Rita Hosking – For Real

Neko Case – Hell-On – Anti-

Sera Cahoone – The Flora String Sessions – Lady Muleskinner

Frank Lee – Gourd Head

Adam’s House Cat – Town Burned Down – ATO

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Downey to Lubbock – Yep Roc

Don Lipari – Earth Sounds – alternating Tuesdays 10 a.m. to noon

V/A – A Woman’s World: Songs of Resilience and Hope – ARC

Elina Duni – Partir – ECM

Kiran Ahluwalia – 7 Billion – KiranMusic

Yiddish Glory – The Lost Songs of World War II – Six Degrees

Robert ‘Robi’ Svärd – Alquimia – Asphalt Tango

Bombino – Deran – Partisan

Seckou Keita – Soar – Bendigedig

Monsieur Doumani – Angathin

Sonido Gallo Negro – Mambo Cosmico – Glitterbeat

Lynn Heintz – Morning Show – alternating Wednesdays 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

The Bones of J.R. Jones – Ones to Keep Close

Sam Lewis – Loversity

Cowboy Junkies – All That Reckoning – Latent Recordings

John Hiatt – The Eclipse Session – New West

Joe Grushecky and The House Rockers – More Yesterdays Than Tomorrows – Schoolhouse

Cat Power – Wanderer – Matador

Doyle Bramhall II – Shades – Provogue

Richard Thompson – 13 Rivers – New West

Rita Hosking – For Real

Darol Anger & Emy Phelps – Music of Our People – Fiddlistics

Steve Cagle – Blues Spectrum – alternating Sundays 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Clothesline Revival – Holy Cow – Paleo Music

Eric Bibb – Global Griot – Stony Plain

Fantastic Negrito – Please Don’t Be Dead – Cooking Vinyl

Janiva Magness – Love Is An Army – Blue Elan

Kat Riggins – In the Boys’ Club – Bluzpik Media Group

Marcel Smith – Everybody Needs Love – Little Village

Muddy Gurdy – S/T – Vizztone

Rory Block – A Woman’s Soul: A Tribute to Bessie Smith – Stony Plain

Shemekia Copeland – America’s Child – Alligator

The Gold Souls – Good To Feel